PROJECT EMPATHY

Our Objective

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To restore, remaster and colourise original footage of Nazi Concentration Camps to help people empathise with the victims of Nazi Concentration Camps. To fight the growing levels of racism and antisemitism we are witnessing around the world.

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Our Goal

Restore the footage of Nazi Concentration Camps recorded on the orders of General Eisenhower.

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What is Project Empathy?

Project Empathy's aim is to make the world understand the horrors of racism and antisemitism. The project is made up of two aspects, a remastering of original footage of concentration camps to full-colour HD, and a Virtual Reality Experience.

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We are working to remaster and colourise original footage of concentration camps that were taken by allied troops after liberation. The rise of antisemitism, racism and extremist groups that focus on dividing humanity through hate and fear is a threat to all of humanity and it's future. Education is the most powerful tool for building bridges and fighting hate and fear.

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The footage was created on the orders of Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower as he knew that if they did not document the camps, people would not believe it had actually happened. Eisenhower was prescient in his concern because Holocaust denial is something that is happening in the world today and is a growing problem. In parallel with this, there is an increase in blaming others for problems and seeing an increase in disdain for people from other cultures to their own.

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What is a Nazi Concentration Camp?

A concentration camp is a place where a government forces people to live without a trial. It is usually people that a government does not like, for example, a specific group whether it be religious, political, foreign, or ethnic. Nazi concentration camps were concentration camps used during Nazi Germany, the period when Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party controlled Germany, from 1933 to 1945.

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What were Nazi Concentration Camps used for?

The Nazi Concentration Camps were originally used for imprisoning people that the Nazi Party did not like, that were seen as potential threats to Nazi rule, such as other political opponents, for example, Communists, Socialists, or people of specific religious belief such as Jehovah’s witnesses and people that the Nazi party viewed as inferior to themselves such as Jewish people, Roma people and disabled people.

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What was the holocaust?

The holocaust was the systematic murder of 6 million Jewish people and 5 million other people that the Nazis' viewed as inferior. The other people included homosexuals, disabled people, Slavic people, Roma people and Jehovah's witnesses.

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What is a death camp?

A death camp or extermination camp is different from a concentration camp in that they were set up to kill as many people as possible in the quickest way possible, using industrial techniques to maximise efficiency.

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What holocaust movies can I watch?

There are lots of documentaries you can watch on the holocaust and Nazi Concentration Camps, however, some of the most moving footage to watch is the original footage filmed on the orders of General Eisenhower as it shows the condition people were forced to live in, as the footage was taken just after the camps were liberated.

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Why project empathy?

There is a growing rise in the number of racist and antisemitic incidences worldwide. The belief that one human being is worth less than someone else is detrimental to humanity as a whole. There is a worrying rise in the number of people denying the holocaust took place, or that Nazi Concentration camps weren’t as bad as people have been told. This is why we are working to remaster and colourise original footage of Nazi Concentration camps. Black and white footage can often be seen as not “real” which is why they are able to show people that have been killed in black and white war footage from WW1 and WW2 in schools as the old footage and black and white makes it seem unreal and that these weren’t real people. Having full HD colour footage creates an impact on the viewer of footage. If it is in full HD colour, people can more easily connect and empathise with the people in the footage.

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Why do holocaust survivors live longer?

There is a paradox with holocaust survivors as there was a belief that those who survived would often die young, yet it appears that those who survived the camps have lived longer than the rest of the population alive at that time. It is argued that those who managed to survivor the appalling chronic conditions may have had a higher resilience to the horrible conditions, thus live longer due to this resilience.

Who survived the holocaust?

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Many people did survive the holocaust, however as the camps were being overrun by the allies, the Nazi’s had removed many prisoners and forced marched them to camps further into Germany. Many died on these forced marches. 7,000 inmates were found in Auschwitz while some 60,000 prisoners were discovered at Bergen-Belsen. Thousands died over the coming weeks from disease and malnutrition.

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Who paid holocaust reparations?

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The Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany entered in to force on March 27, 1953.

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When were the Nazi Concentration Camps built?

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The camps were built from 1933 onwards.

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When were the Nazi Concentration Camps liberated?

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The camps were liberated as the allies advanced on Germany during the later stage of WW2. The Soviet Red Army was the first to discover the camps in eastern Europe, the western allies did not believe the information from the soviets until they started liberating camps in the west. The camps were liberated by the Allied forces between 1944 and 1945.

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How many people died in the Nazi Concentration Camps?

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According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the total number of people killed during the Holocaust was 17 million: 6 million Jewish people and 11 million other people.

How did the Nazi Concentration Camps Begin?

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Concentration Camps weren’t invented by the Nazis. Other countries had previously been using them to hold groups of people that were considered undesirable. The camps in Nazi Germany were originally set up to suppress all real and political opposition to the Nazi party. The first camp Dachau was created in 1933 and was to hold 5,000 communists and other political prisoners that the Nazi’s viewed as a threat to their rule. From there other camps were created to contain more and more people that the Nazi’s wanted to remove from the population.

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How many holocaust survivors are still alive?

As time moves on fewer people who survived the holocaust and Nazi concentration camps are still alive. This is why it is so important to keep the memory alive so that we never experience another.

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THANK YOU

We would like to thank Mr Clinton Simmons and Henninger Media Services for converting the original footage into 4K quality.